On October 16, 2025, the "Thinker's Forum" was held in Shanghai, hosted by the China Institute of Fudan University, the "Oriental Journal", The Observer, Dill Culture, and the Shanghai Spring and Autumn Strategy Development Research Institute.

In the afternoon session titled "Chinese Discourse and the Transformation of the Global Intellectual Landscape", Bai Gang, Secretary-General and Researcher of the Center for the History of Ideas at Fudan University, pointed out that not only the world system dominated by the United States after World War II, but even more so, the world system dominated by the West since the 16th century, has inevitably entered a stage of accelerated decline, even to the point of disintegration.

"In the state of the old world order collapsing, the two most powerful countries under the current conditions - China and the United States - indeed present an extremely interesting, mirror-like existence."

Bai Gang found that "these two countries possess both strength and virtual power, which is fundamentally different from Europe, but there is a high imbalance between their virtual power and strength. The United States' virtual power far exceeds its actual strength, while China is unfortunately the opposite."

Bai Gang speaking at the Thinker's Forum, The Observer

He explained that both strength and virtual power can influence the world. Strength can directly act on the material world, while virtual power affects people's consciousness, emotions, judgments, aesthetics, and imagination, that is, it influences the spiritual world of people, and then through people's actions further influences the world.

The reason for using the term "virtual power" is deliberately not using terms such as "soft power" because they are insufficient to reflect the real difference in power in this changing era.

A phenomenon worth exploring is that the United States' strength, such as its industrial and manufacturing capabilities, has sharply declined, yet it still has a very strong influence in the world, which is a sign that its virtual power remains strong.

"To date, although the United States is in decline, many elites in the country and beyond still firmly refuse to believe that the United States has declined. In this sense, we have to admit that whether it is 'spiritual feeding' or ideological shaping, the United States' virtual power has not declined in sync with its actual strength."

"In a way, it can maintain it through new mechanisms even when the dollar hegemony is declining, by continuously building new concepts and systems such as digital currencies and stablecoins. Its influence in the financial sector and in the ideological sphere remains strong."

"In this issue, China is just the opposite. The atmosphere and strength shown during the September 3rd military parade are enough to inspire all forces of justice in the world. However, we face many limitations in expressing the power we already have and how to use it. Although there are various reasons, overall, they can be summed up as a lack of virtual power. Facing the actual strength we have, being unable to effectively use it or facing many constraints during the process of using it is a manifestation of a lack of virtual power."

Analyzing the reasons behind this, Bai Gang believes it can be traced back to the "Axial Breakthrough Era," roughly from the 6th century BC to the 3rd century BC.

"During the era of the Hundred Schools of Thought in China, a consensus was eventually formed to completely marginalize the School of Names. If there is any obvious consensus between Confucianism and Taoism, it is to completely marginalize the school that confuses 'names' and 'realities' to disrupt thinking. This is indeed the case. On the other hand, Greece saw the rise of the Sophists, who used specific conceptual systems to depict, shape, and even manipulate people's thoughts."

Bai Gang summarized, "The high imbalance between strength and virtual power between China and the United States today can be traced back to specific historical intellectual constraints, indicating that tradition still plays a deeply profound role today. Even if China's strength truly develops to a position of overwhelming superiority over the entire Western world, we cannot underestimate the arduousness of the long-term struggle and confrontation in the field of ideology and thought."

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